Drone in near miss with Edinburgh-bound plane

A drone came within 200ft of crashing into a passenger plane as it prepared to land at Edinburgh Airport, an investigation has found.

A co-pilot on an ATR72 plane raised the alarm when he spotted a drone ahead of the plane as it was on approach to the airport, just before 3pm and 14 nautical miles east of Edinburgh on July 8 this year, according a report by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)’s airprox board

The flight officer told investigators the drone initially appeared “well below” the 72-seater aircraft, but appeared to be climbing before it passed down the left side of the aircraft and slightly above.

The report ruled that the incident was a “medium” risk of crashing.

The report added: “The board considered that the pilot’s overall account of the incident, given that they had seen the drone at range, portrayed a situation where safety had been much reduced below the norm to the extent that safety had not been assured.”